[Kdrama] ‘Five Children’ ep 9 ~recap/review/opinion~

In Chul and So Young come after Mi Jung at the police office. There, Mi Jung gets angry about the whole situation since she wouldn’t have stolen to car if they would just give her the alimony. However, In Chul and So Young are making it seem like everything is just her fault but Sang Tae tells them that they also acted wrong in the whole situation. He is fast interrupted by the police officer who got annoyed with all of them for fighting.

Ho Tae is being overemotional after finding out that Soon Young had a hard life all this time. When she arrives at the coffee shop to meet him, he tries to find out from her own mouth what happened after they broke up and questions her if she was at home, about her family and so on but she doesn’t understand the meaning so she continues her lie. Knowing that it will hurt her to say that he knows what happened with her family, Ho Tae tells her he is happy that in the past she didn’t run with him, because if they were to runaway together then her life would’ve been way more miserable. He ends it with telling Soon Young that before returning to America, they should meet once more.

Mi Jung is being told by the police officer that she needs to reach an agreement with both In Chul for stealing the car and for having an accident with another driver. If she doesn’t, then she will be detained. Mi Jung day dreams about how her children will have to visit her at a jail. Mi Jung is being taken to the jail by the police officer but Sang Tae tries to comfort her saying that everything will be ok. Meanwhile, In Chul and his beloved wife have no problem that the mother of his wife was being taken by the police and will probably end up in prison so they went to eat dinner out. To me, it seemed more like the two were celebrating for what happened with Mi Jung.

Sang Tae arrives home and sees Jin Joo waiting outside, after she tells her what happened, Sang Tae tells her to go to his parents’ house and he will call Yeon Tae to wait for her there. Of course, Yeon Tae is in Heaven knowing that Jin Joo is suffering and also tells her parents that she will stay with them because Sang Tae just called and asked to take care of Jin Joo for a while because she was kicked out for not graduating. The family finds the situation funny and they make fun of what happened in the in-law’s house. When she arrives, they act nice in front of her, but behind they actually like the situation.

Ho Tae comes back and is informed by his father that he needs to stay low in the storage room because Jin Joo will stay at their house for a while and if she finds out about him, the in-laws will laugh at them. Ho Tae is quiet despite the bright personality he normally has and that kind of makes the father concerned about him. Back in the house, the man talks with his wife that maybe they should give him some money to help him with the movie he is making – the father thinks Ho Tae is sad because he doesn’t have enough funds for his current movie.

At night, Soon Young sends Ho Tae a message saying that she can’t meet with him anymore because the next day she will be leaving to America. After thinking better, she sends him another message telling him that in fact she’s leaving the day after tomorrow and they should be meeting one more time because after she leaves, they won’t get to see each other.

Sang Tae is concerned about Mi Jung being in detention with other strange people. But from the looks of it, she’s the strangest one.

On the other hand, Jin Joo makes Yeon Tae to take some pictures of her crying. Yeon Tae takes the pictures and also sends Jin Joo’s mother a message saying that her daughter doesn’t want to eat. The parents wonder if they should just bring Jin Joo back, but after 5 minutes Yeon Tae sends another message telling them that Jin Joo made her send all that and she’s actually doing well.

In the morning, Yeon Tae receives a call from Sang Min who informs her that he called the police since she doesn’t want to return the phone and also she’s the one who told him to call the police – it was after she finds out that Jin Joo was asked out by Tae Min in the last episode. He ends the call but receives numerous messages form Yeon Tae, pleading to forgive her because when she told him to call the police, she wasn’t in her right mind. The messages are being read by Tae Min because Sang Min was driving the car but he has no idea that the girl who stole his brother’s phone is Yeon Tae. She receives a reply, that they will settle everything by law.

Sang Tae meets up with In Chul and So Young. He finds out from Mi Jung’s former husband that he wants to reveal the children the truth and meet them with no shame. So Young says that they should also receive compensation from Mi Jung because of the accidents. Hearing them out, Sang Tae tries to hold on and not hit In Chul.

Two police officers come at school but Yeon Tae misunderstands everything and thinks the two come to take her when they were actually there for a non violence speech.

Sang Min prepares for an interview and receives a message from Yeon Tae, pleading to meet at the coffee shop he wanted before to return the phone. He replays but we don’t see yet the message. Meanwhile, Mi Jung’s granny goes to her work place where she finds out the truth from Sang Tae, that she is in detention until everything is settled with In Chul and his wife. Sang Tae calms the woman and tells her that he will take care of everything and asks her to pretend that she doesn’t know anything.

Later, Sang Tae meets up with his brother and asks him to teach acting to his daughter and her friend. He also tells his brother that maybe it’s time to do some other type of work. At that point, Ho Tae is a bit irritated because he should give up his dream but has to help his niece fulfill the same dream. Anyway, eventually Ho Tae says that he won’t give up but also asks his brother to give his car of 1 night and 2 days.

Soon Young hunches that something might be wrong after settling to meet up with Ho Tae one more time. Later she meets up with him and the two go on a date.

In Chul received the black box recording and ends up watching everything from the day Mi Jung’s stole his car together with his wife and mother-in-law. On the other hand, Sang Tae goes to visit Mi Jung and finds out from her that his past words to her are making her feel at ease in these hard moments and that she believes he will help her like he always does for his employees. She finds out from Sang Tae that In Chul wants to reveal the truth to his children but Mi Jung is clearly not ready to do that thinking that the children are to young to find the truth that their father cheated on her with her best friend. Mi Jung doesn’t understand how he wants to be a father now after he cheated on her.

My thoughts on episode nine:

Really, it’s understandable that Mi Jung suffers but stopping In Chul and the children from meeting is wrong. It would’ve been better if she told the truth, that she and In Chul divorced. Why the whole lie with him moving to America for work? It’s not good for any of them moreover the children miss their father. Despite their ill natured relationship, the children shouldn’t suffer because of their relationship and for the 3 kids, both are equally important. She needs to realize and stop connect her sufferings with In Chul by using their children.

Yeon Tae is my favorite, but Jin Joo remains her friend. Even though Jin Joo may be an airhead, I said it before and I will say it again, she seems to genuinely like Yeon Tae and it was somehow upsetting seeing Yeon Tae and her parents being happy at Jin Joo’s sufferings. Jin Joo is an airhead but I don’t find her that bad of a person. Again, she has no idea Yeon Tae likes Tae Min thus she has no fault for now in that aspect and although Yeon Tae is hurt she needs to drop some of her low self esteem and help Jin Joo get back on the right track. But Jin Joo also needs to straighten up and arrange her life priorities.

Sang Min remains funny and I keep looking forward to his meeting with Yeon Tae, they will surely become my favorite couple of this show but the writer keeps delaying their meet. I wonder what Tae Min will think when he will find out that Yeon Tae stole his brother’s phone.

One thing is starting to feel boring about this drama, Ho Tae and Soon Young’s story.

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9 comments

Totally agree with you on Yeon Tae and her parents making fun of Jin Joo’s bad decisions. I just never got the impression that she was ever anything than thinking that she was Yeon Tae’s friend. Now on In Chul, my only comment is hiding it was the worse but I somewhat understand based on her grandma’s reaction. We’ll see how the kids react in the future. I already have my prediction on that. But In Chul, I understand…be there; lived that.

I already have a feeling that if the children will find out that she lied, her eldest son will hate on her. We already saw that he heard Mi Jung and the granny talk and he was somehow confused about their conversation.Anyway, her lie will probably affect the relationship she has with her son the most.

True but I don’t think the son will not fault the father! He did leave his mother for a woman that they knew all their lives! In that case, he will be the most affected! He will definitely be angry with both!

As I understood it, the conflict was over payment of child support, not alimony. Alimony is compensation for the spouse. Child support is an ongoing obligation for the children, and not for the parent, as Mi Jung pointed out numerous times to In Chul. It was wrong of In Chul, his wife and his MiL to withhold payment of child support as leverage to get Mi Jung to kneel or whatever. It was also wrong of Mi Jung to take the car–she should have just hired a lawyer and taken her Ex’s posterior to court.
I’m not sure where everyone gets the idea that it’s only Mi Jung who is keeping the kids from seeing their father. In Chul has not taken Mi Jung to court for visitation or asked to see the kids for 3 years. Why now?

I tho it was the same thing, thanks for pointing that out, I will edit the post XD

They are both wrong in this but at this point none is thinking about the children but about their own pride. In Chul is also being pushed from behind by his wife and mother in law, is like he has no say in this.

totally agree with your take on the episode. unfortunately, it is not an uncommon response by the ‘left’ person in a divorce scenario to insist that leaving the spouse means abandoning the children. some of the comments on viki even supported mi jung’s position by repeating that. it’s totally wrong and the cause of much sorrow & trauma for the children.
its also fair to say in this situation that he’s been out of their physical lives for three years doing whatever they were doing; and she did let him do the video calls etc. he knew of the lie and seemed to support it until now. i think the mother in law and his new idiot wife have been moving him towards this mindset. the loser trio reached yet new lows in this episode putting her in jail!! they are such cretins! aaaaaargh i was spitting nails! lol
i also felt a bit bad for jin joo this episode….mainly because they were laughing at her; and i was also laughing with them at her. so i was guilty too. i wonder if alot of viewers felt that way. good finesse on the writers part and a deft change of perspective. her parents really are something else, it seems to me they really have ignored their daughter for a long time. the supercilious housekeeper over there is a fun supporting character, btw. what doesnt she know? haha
lastly, sang min is fast becoming my favorite character! he’s so colorful and hysterical and i think there’s alot to him. ^^
thanks for the fab recap! onwards!

She is hurt by her former husband’s actions but she shouldn’t use the children as a form of punishment for him.
The MiL and his current wife are the main problem of why he is starting to act like he does. But I’m still angry over the fact that he agreed with the two idiots to make Mi Jung kneel. She’s the mother of his children, he is the one at fault for hurting her yet he reaches the point of demanding her to kneel in front of him?!
It also annoyed me how he and his wife were talking about eating out since they haven’t in a while, when 5 minutes before Mi Jung was detained….
Hahaha the housekeeper is the only sane adult person from that house XD